11.30.2009

Oneohtrix Point Never

Daniel Lopatin rounds up all the pieces of his free floating synth trilogy into one package that washes over the listener in waves of euphoria, paranoia and displaced humanism. The three individually released albums that make up the set (Betrayed in the Ocatagon, Zones Without People and Russian Mind) follow the tale of an Astronaut stranded on an Earth-like planet filled with inhabitants that spend their lives connected to and dependent on machines but remain convinced they aren't cyborgs. The trilogy ends with the astronaut composing a score from his death bed looking out into a grove of artificial trees. As much as this concept might sound like the basis of a Philip K. Dick novel, the music matches the underlying feelings of alienation, technological crutch and loss of humanity perfectly. Lopatin's analog syth epic captures a time and place in music techonology that sounded at once familiar in structure and completely otherworldly in execution. With each tonal buzz and fizzle of tube the sounds transport listeners further and further into the terraformed realities of Oneohtrix Point Never's universe. Rifts captures the journey in one seamless package. If you missed any part of this journey previously, then this release is indispensable.